Stardust
by RoseForEverAfter
Summary: Jericho. JakeHeather set about fifteen years in the future


Stardust

A Jericho fic, a show I love despite the leaps in logic sometimes required(don't drink the milk!). Jake/Heather, takes place approximately fifteen years after the blast. Heavily based on Pat Frank's classic novel, Alas Babylon, specifically one scene near the end.

Life in Jericho had settled down considerably after the first tumoltuous years. True, electricity was now a distant memory, and water had to mostly come from wells. Soap was homemade, and no one had seen canned food in some time. There had been, it turned out three cities in Kansas hit by bombs, and the whole state was cut off and quarintened from the entire U.S., its capital now Jackson. But things had settled into a routine, and for that Heather was glad. She had three daughters, Eve, Rachel Rose, and Judith, and all were good children. Food was mostly no longer a problem, people with farms or ranches grew and raised as much as they could and it was all sold for services or canned and smoked to keep the town through the winter when it was too cold to go outside to cook anything. Most people had gardens in their backyards and maybe a few chickens, and wild fruit trees and patches had returned to the land beyond the edges of town. Hunting had been a temporary fix, but as ammo was precious, traps had become the norm.

Heather pushed aside the sliced new potatoes for supper, and sighed. Despite her contentment with her family, there were things she missed greatly. Non-catalogue toilet paper, hot showers that didn't come out of a garbage bag, and so many other things.

Like traditional holidays. Christmas and Easter had become days spent in church and then outside. Halloween and thanksgiving had merged to become a kind of paganistic harvest festival, a kind of celebratory joy that they were all going to eat for another winter, and a time to gorge on baked pumpkin. Birthdays had mostly been forgotten. But for her last one, Jake had found an old chess set in his parents attic, and they had both played for hours on end. She just wished she could find something for him in thanks.

When she spotted her eldest daughter Eve come over the chicken wire fence with a dead rabbit and two blackbirds for supper. The Richmond's had had a huge problem with blackbirds in their corn a few years ago, and everyday after school Eve and Clairie would take their rifles and shoot any of the ones they saw. They made good pie if they had flour, and also went well with rabbit in stews. Looking at Eve, she thought of something else she missed. New clothes. While the adults had mostly been able to trade or mend, or even make new clothes, children grew far too fast too waste precious cloth on. Eve's top was made out of crocheted doilies and napkins. Her skinny legs were covered in a potato sack skirt.

She took the rabbit and put it aside to skin then turned to Eve, "what's in the bag honey?"

Eve smiled and pulled out a large heavy object and set it on the ground, her blue eyes alight.

Heather's eyes widened. "Where did you get this?"

Eve grinned, her dark hair falling in her face.

"Me and Clairie Turner found it in one of the empty houses by Garner Street,"

"Aren't you two supposed to be in school?" She chastised.

Eve shook her head, "Miss Sullivan said we had moved too far ahead of the others, and that you could just teach us at home, the library's too crowded already"

Heather sighed, though she had to admit she did miss teaching, but almost no one had kept their old occupations, what with all the extra work to be doing. Emily didn't have a family to care for so she had taught all the town's children. She should have known that they wouldn't be able to keep Eve and Clairie very long. The radiation had had some more effects than they could have expected. One was increased cancer, and Alice's uncle Stanley had been first to fall, having been out in the rain. The other was more hidden. Eve had been the first healthy child born in Jericho after the bombs, and Alice had been the second, both six years afterward, and no more childre were born for three years after them.

She turned her attention back to the box, "Does it work?"

Eve shook her head "something's wrong, but I knew you were looking for Dad a birthday present, and he always says you're good with machines, I thought maybe you could fix it."

Heather tilted it over and took a look at the wiring, "you know honey I think maybe I can, now do me a favor and stir the potatoes so I can skin that rabbit, and then go find your sisters"

Jake groaned and cracked his neck as he closed the door. It had been a hard day. The years had been almost tranquil after most of the bandits left. It had taken people a surprising amount of time to understand that the food at the market was grown for the whole town and would be fairly rationed, but whatever a family hunted or grew or found was theirs to keep, and they used to have to apprehend a number of thieves almost daily.

He quickly ate the blackbird stew left for him on the table. He hated making Heather and the girls eat dinner alone, but he wasn't especially hungry. All he wanted now was to curl up next to his wife and sleep until the sun came up.

When coming down the hall he heard something. He paused, thinking, no that can't be right.

When he came to the doorway. He saw Heather sitting on the edge of the bed.  
On the end table next to her was an old-fashioned handcrack phonograph, playing swing music.

His mouth must have been gaping, because she laughed.

"Happy Birthday".

He was gobsmacked "Where did you...?"

She laughed again, looking quite pleased at his surprise.

"Eve found it, I fixed the burnt out wiring", she pulled out some records,  
"Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, the girls willl be glad to be relieved of my yearly rendition of Rudolph this year, oh and the ever clasic; Stardust" She looked at him.

He stood up and went to close the window.

"Starry out tonight"

She stood to go stand next to him.

"Not for long, winter's coming"

They both gazed out at the night sky for several minutes. When the record ran out, Heather turned to crank it again. She put on Moonlight Serenade. Suddenly feeling bold, she stood back up and went to him, putting out her arms.

"Let's dance"

Still somewhat dumbstruck, he took both of her hands in his, and the two began to clumsily waltz.

"When was the last time you danced with somebody?"

She but her lip, "Uh, Girl Scout Sweetheart dance, seventh grade"

He laughed for the first time that night, and twirled her. The two continued as they were long after the record ran out, and the moon in the sky had hidden behind a cloud.

and a hidden ship, if you can anme it you get a digital lollipop.  
CO2 shower, fill a black garbage bag with water, leave it on the top of a car in the sun for several hours, strip down, soap up and have someone open the bag and pour it over your head.  
hand crank phonographs only play 78's which they stopped making in the very early fifties, "Moonlight Serenade", was at first "Walkin to New Orleans".

please read and review! 


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